How many times have you ever had to set aside all that you knew? All of the confidence that you had in a particular specialty, industry, or area of interest? How many times have you placed your success completely in the hands of strangers?

If you can answer “Yes” to these questions, you also understand how liberating vulnerability, and it’s big sister, “trust”, are to your psyche. Many of us in business have a difficult time exposing ourselves to such vulnerability. After all, confidence in an industry or specialty is what got us to where we are. Of course, we are the experts. Can’t you tell? I have mentioned in previous posts how this attitude holds us back, so I won’t delve into that here. And, this is NOT a self help blog, so don’t feel a need to sign off.

This is about how being vulnerable can open you up to new ideas and new ways of doing things will expand your thinking. I am currently involved in a project that requires my expertise and knowledge as the core product. However, in order to properly market this product, I must completely trust the expert opinion of others to drive the strategy. I have to rely on others, who do this for a living, to guide me in the next steps and tell me what to do. For a leader that has achieved a great deal in his career, this can be a bit uncomfortable. Actually, it is very uncomfortable. Aren’t leaders supposed to lead and not be led?

This said, I must admit that I am learning so much more about the way things work in the space where I need help. I am soaking it in and loving every minute of it. I am blessed to have to five different marketing companies working with me to create and implement a marketing plan that I hope will produce the desired results for this new product launch. To have this type of collaboration is both humbling and amazing to me. I am humbled by the passion that my partners feel for this project and am grateful for their support and enthusiasm. I also get to watch how certain marketers approach the same opportunity from their respective position of strength. And we have a great marketing plan that not only involves four domestic marketing partners, but one from South Africa as well.

It is said that “Learning begins at the edge of discomfort.” I am living this axiom as we speak. I have learned that being vulnerable isn’t so bad. I still question things that I don’t understand to learn why our team is taking a certain approach. This allows me a slight bit of control over events happening around me and for me. “Trust, but verify.” as Ronald Reagan said. And vulnerability, along with new learnings, helps me to be more effective in what I do with clients, allowing me to share new perspectives with them as they grow their businesses too.

Being vulnerable, with the right team, can be OK. If you are too afraid to allow some look vulnerability, then you are holding yourself back. You must acknowledge what you don’t know. We all know that it is impossible for any one person to be an expert at everything. We need a team if we want to flesh out the very best ideas. We need to be candid in sharing what we know and don’t know. We need to trust our partners and their expertise. We need to beleive that strength comes from many, not one.

Most of all, we need to understand that it all begins with allowing ourselves to feel vulnerable.

Yep, we all heard that phrase growing up and we still use it as adults, don’t we? Why do we still say “It’s all about perspective….”? Obviously, we feel a need to say this to remind our friends and family that things aren’t as bad as they think they are. It is so easy to get things out of perspective ins’t it? Take a look at the country today. Do we really believe that the perspectives of Americans is THAT far off? Are there not more things that bind us together than want to tear us apart? I believe so. I am not naive to the issues that face our country, but through active communication over the years, across many different demographics, I have learned that ALL have more in common than we openly acknowledge. I am going to stop here before this turns into a Facebook post.

In Sheryl Crow’s song Soak Up The Sun, there is a line in the song that says “It’s not having what you want; it’s wanting what you’ve got.” All too often, we lose sight of this. I see this manifest itself in clients when they are asked to do a SWOT analysis on their company and their toughest competitor. Invariably, employees rate their own company very poorly against various metrics, while rating their competitors unnaturally high on those same metrics. As we dive into the reasons behind the ratings, it becomes apparent that the truth is somewhere in between these wide ratings. Absent my perspective though, my clients would continue to believe that they were at a huge disadvantage in the marketplace, and that’s why they were losing share to competition. It’s all about perspective…

Perhaps it is human nature to look at things this way. Personally, I am always looking for the reasons why something can and will work, not why it won’t work. I prefer to see the positive side of things. I am not naive and I expect there to be “another side”. But that won’t dissuade me from making a decision to move the business forward. I see the “other side” as enriching the dialogue and the ultimate decision. Some will be crippled by negative feedback or input but not me. I expect it, even look for it, as part of the decision process. We limit our possibilities and our success when we over value negative input. When your mind is cluttered with negative thoughts or reasoning, you don’t leave room for thinking about possibilities. It’s all about perspective….

Every team has it dreamers and those that live in a black and white world. Neither group fully appreciates the other or what their respective perspectives bring to the table. Sales folks are the dreamers….unencumbered by reality. Accounting, operations, and others are the “sales prevention” departments. Again, it’s all about perspective. Every one of those departments wants the company to succeed. That binds all employees together. Departments simply need to take the time to find the common ground, review the supporting facts, and then make the very best decision possible. It’s all about perspective….

Dream big, but appreciate the risks of doing so. Marry the two and you will start to invent opportunities for yourself. It’s all about perspective….

Confidence is almost universally viewed as a real strength. It allows people to try things in their personal and professional lives that they would not otherwise try. Confidence is a critical attribute in leaders. The ability to make informed decisions and not second guess the decision to move forward. Yes, confidence is a great personality trait to have.

Confidence can also be the enemy. Sounds crazy, I know, especially after the first paragraph. But confidence can get in the way of making the right decision and doing the right thing. Many leaders are so confident in their experience and ability to make sound judgments, that they quit listening to alternative ideas. Frankly, it’s hard to give up what you know has been successful and a cornerstone of your rapid rise up the ranks of corporate America. There in lies the problem. All too often, leaders put on the ruse of “listening” to feedback from subordinates or outside interests. Their mind already made up, they politely (sometimes impolitely) listen and take things “under advisement”, which is code for “your ideas aren’t going any further”. This is a problem on several levels.

Turning a deaf ear to those subordinates that you have empowered to help run your business sends a message that you do not value their input. Why would you dismiss the input of a leader that you put in charge of running your business? Believing that only you have the right answers is a dangerous mindset. It undermines long term success at every turn. In fairness, taking feedback from your team means that you have to give up a little bit of yourself. You have to admit that you do not have all of the answers. You are exposing a vulnerable side of yourself to your team. For marginally confident leaders, this is a problem. But doing so, will actually win you more respect from your team.

With every team that I have led, I empowered those that I hired (or even inherited) to run their businesses. After all, I thought those folks were great when I hired them in the first place. Why would I think otherwise once they were on the payroll? Many times, I had conversations with my team and they wanted to go a direction that I wasn’t confident in. Each time, I challenged their thinking and thought process, to see how well developed the idea/strategy was, and also to check their passion for the strategy. Every time, I said to them, “Do what you feel is best. After all, I pay you to run your business.” As you might imagine sometimes they were wrong and sometimes I was wrong. Every time, though, we learned and we all got better. That alone was worth the trust that I placed in my team. Our team got stronger and we achieved results that were well above industry average. And there was a chemistry between my managers and me and a real camaraderie among the management group which filtered down into the larger organization.

Confidence can become the enemy when you begin to believe your own B.S. Maintaining the proper humility and keeping an open mind can help leaders avoid this trap. Leaders sometimes forget that they were once in the same position that their team is in. They were young and wanted to be heard. Your leadership team today is no different in their desire to be heard.

Will you let supreme confidence become the enemy to progress? Or will you have the confidence to share leadership with those that have earned the right and want the same things that you do? The answer is simple if you are confident enough to see it.

Have you ever noticed how long we hold on to things? We hold on to old shoes, jeans, habits, friends, and many other things because they are comfortable. Our comfortable shoes and jeans may look the part thereby, limiting their ability to be worn only to certain places and events. Old friends may be holding you back, or you find that you have outgrown them. Old habits can be good, as can old friends, as long as we take an honest look at their contribution to our well being. I am not a shrink, but am human, and have dealt with all that I have mentioned so far, as you, no doubt have as well.

When I think about business strategies and their need to evolve, I think about the chameleon. They have this amazing ability to change color to adapt to the current surroundings, thereby, protecting them from natural predators. They can adapt to any situation that they find themselves in. Let that soak in for a minute….here is a species that has survived thousands of years by adapting to its present surroundings.

How good do you think your business would be if you were smartly reading the tea leaves all around you. Success as a leader is predicated on the leader’s ability to read what’s on the horizon and make the necessary changes to help the organization adapt to changing conditions. Sadly, most businesses rely too much on things that have worked in the past. You should continue those things that work, but, as leaders, we need to be willing to cut loose those practices and policies that do not work in today’s’ market. I am surprised at the number of companies that fail to do this, especially with their sales teams. Sales teams are the “front door” to your company. If they are not trained to be forward thinkers, then why do customers need them?

Employees crave training to keep their skills current. Companies acknowledge that they do not invest in keeping the skills current for their front line teams (and other employees). Training at most companies is viewed as an expense, not an investment. This happens because, as one manager told me years ago, “I know what the cost is, but I don’t know what the return is.” This gentleman went on to admit that he had no plan on how to manage his team that had gone through training. He did not know how to cope with the new market dynamics and thus, couldn’t see the benefit to keeping his team current because he didn’t know what to do with them when they got home. I appreciated his candor, but was shocked that this man had risen to such a high level job. As you might expect, new, better educated companies entered their market and quickly killed this 1,000 gorilla in the market.

We fear change because we are afraid at how it will make us look. We are afraid that some might ask “Why we haven’t done this sooner?” “Why didn’t we think of this?” “Do we have the right leader if he/she can’t see these trends?” We also are afraid to admit that maybe trends and technology, and therefore, the market, may have outgrown us. None of us like to feel obsolete, so we perpetuate an environment, culture and practices filled with those things that we know, even if it means a slow deathly drag on our business.

We all need to be life long learners and not be afraid of change. Fearing it isn’t going to stop it. Be a chameleon and adapt to the settings around you. As it does for them, it will help you to survive as well.

I am reading a good book about the University of Washington rowing team from the early 1930’s. Rowing was a very popular sport in the early 1930’s with the east coast universities and clubs mostly dominating the scene. However, the University of California and University of Washington had a “spirited”, so might even say bitter rivalry for west coast supremacy. But it didn’t end there, as the University of Washington’s crew team went on to win the nationals and later represent the US in the 1936 Olympic Games held in Berlin, Germany. In fact, our team won the gold medal thereby, poking a finger ion the eye of Aryan supremacy and Hitler’s plans.

What is fascinating to me is how precise the art of rowing is. In an eight man crew, each member must perform their task exactly the same way and on the same tempo in order for the boat to glide smoothly through the water. The Washington team was having difficulties in getting the times that they had become accustomed to in earlier events. The coaches were perplexed and eventually hit upon a solution. The role of the coxswain is to call out the tempo to the crew in order to maximize the stroke count and produce the desired time. The coxswain of the #1 crew hit upon a simple solution to keep his fellow crew mates focused on the task at hand. He would repeatedly call out the letters M-I-B. M-I-B stood for Mind In Boat. He wanted each oarsman to be reminded that their only chance for winning was to leave all external cares and pressures outside of the boat. Once they stepped into the boat and strapped in, then they had to keep their “mind in the boat”, focusing only on that which would help the crew to succeed in its singular goal of winning.

This same philosophy applies to successful teams in business. Is your team aligned behind common goals? Does your team approach their roles with a common purpose and methodology? For those that do have a consistent strategy, the results are powerful. I have had the privilege to lead several teams where we had to gain alignment in order to win. We did align behind common goals and purposes and we achieved record results. Working at cross purposes only serves to sap the energy of the organization. Employees become de-motivated and begin to give less than their very best.

If you want to realize the fullest potential of your team, then ensure that every team member has his/her mind inboat. That’s when you will sail to victory and reap the rewards that come with it.